— Tyler Durden: Fight Club
On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered this “Day of Infamy Speech,” shown here as the first draft. Immediately afterward, Congress declared war, and the United States entered World War II.
via Prologue: “FDR’s ‘Day of Infamy’ Speech: Crafting a Call to Arms”
(via npr)
On This Date In 1980…
“Do you know what you just did?” the doorman asked Chapman dazedly. “I just shot John Lennon,” came the calm reply.
Newsweek December 22, 1980
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npr:
Scientists have discovered a planet not too much bigger than Earth that’s circling a distant star that’s much like our own sun. What’s more, this planet is in the “Goldilocks zone” around that star — a region that’s not too hot and not too cold. That’s the kind of place that could be home to liquid water and maybe even life.
The planet, known as Kepler-22b, is the first near-Earth-sized planet to be found smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone of a twin to our Sun.
The planet is about 2 1/2 times the size of the Earth. It orbits a little closer to its star than our planet does to our sun, and goes around once every 290 days compared with our 365. But its star is a bit cooler than our sun, says William Borucki of NASA Ames Research Center, who heads NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission, which detected this planet.
“That means that that planet, Kepler-22b, has a rather similar temperature to that of the Earth,” Borucki says. “Its surface temperature would be something like 72 Fahrenheit.”
It’s not yet clear what kind of surface the planet might have — researchers don’t know if the planet is made mostly of rock or water or something else. And don’t expect astronauts to climb on a rocket and go there anytime soon.
“The star is some 600 light-years away,” says Borucki, “so it’s not terribly far away, but not terribly close either.”
Weeeeird!
Attack on Pearl Harbor
In the early hours of December 7, 1941, Japan unleashed a devastating surprise attack throughout the Pacific. The worst blow came at Hawaii, site of the giant Pearl Harbor naval base and other American military installations. In just two hours, Japanese bombers destroyed or damaged 21 American naval vessels and over 300 aircraft. The attacks killed 2403 military personnel and civilians, and shattered the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The top image shows the wreckage-strewn Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor following the Japanese attack.
Below is a photo of Japanese carrier planes taking off for the attack: Japanese sailors cheer as planes take off from a carrier deck for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sailors cheer as Japanese planes take off from the deck of a carrier one-by-one under the “Z” flag for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Historian John Toland determined the time of this photograph to be 7:49 a.m. Honolulu time.
(via npr)
